Bracknell Sports Centre
Saturday 21st May at 7.45 pm
Silver Jubilee Concert
The South East Music Trust
in association'with the Johnson Wax Arts Foundation
presents
The Orchestra of the South East
l Guildford Philharmonic Orchestra |
and
Philharmonic Choir
THE QUEEN
CORONATION ANTHEM
-ZADOK THE PRIEST
To-day’s concert has been presented by the
Johnson Wax Arts Foundation and the
South East Music Trust with financial
the Musical Director, who acknowledges
with thanks the help he has received in
training the choir from Kenneth Lank and
support from the Southern Arts Association.
Mary Whittle, and accompanists Patricia
Finch and Prudence Smith. The Choir
made its first recording in 1973 with the
CONCERT CELEBRATING THE
SILVER JUBILEE OF HER
MAJESTY THE QUEEN
Guildford Philharmonic Orchestra:
Intimations of Immortality by Gerald Finzi,
and in 1976 recorded Hadley’s “The Trees
So High” with the New Philharmonia
Orchestra.
The Guildford Philharmonic Orchestra
The Guildford Philharmonic is the Orchestra
of the South East. It was established in
1945 and now has a fully-professional
playing strength of seventy. It gives a winter
season of fifteen concerts in Guildford
Civic Hall promoted by the Borough
Council with financial assistance from the
South East Arts Association. Many of the
orchestral players are also members of
leading London orchestras and chamber
groups, whilst others are drawn from the
large body of freelance professionals in the
Home Counties.
Under Vernon Handley, who became the
Musical Director and Conductor in 1962,
the Orchestra has established a national
reputation for its vivid and exciting performances of the standard repertoire and of
less familiar works, particularly those of
British composers.
As this is a Jubilee Concert and a festival
occasion, the Philharmonic Choir ladies
are wearing coloured dresses rather than
their usual formal black.
Vernon Handley
Vernon Handley was born in Enfield,
North London, and studied at Balliol
College, Oxford, and the Guildhall School
of Music and Drama. He is now one of the
busiest British Conductors working
regularly with all the major London and
regional orchestras. Recognised as one of
the major champions of British music,
Vernon Handley is frequently entrusted
with the world premiere of new works.
In the last couple of years he has made a
dozen recordings for four different
companies, the repertoire ranging from
Finzi, Vaughan Williams and Tippett to
Since 1972, under the sponsorship of the
South East Music Trust, the Orchestra has
Tchaikovsky, Faure and Saint-Saens, a
record of music by the latter composer
been able to extend its activities to many
with Pierre Amoyal as soloist gaining a
towns in the South East region, from
Canterbury to Winchester. Its performances
have met with warm audience response and
critical acclaim and the orchestra intends
to increase the number and frequency of
its concerts outside Guildford, particularly
Grand Prix du Disque award.
Guildford House, 155 High Street,
Since 1962 he has been Musical Director
to the Municipality of Guildford where he
has developed the Guildford Philharmonic
into a professional body of major importance and conducts the Proteus Choir with
singers all aged under 30, as well as the
larger Philharmonic Choir. He has made
several records with both the orchestra
Guildford, Surrey.
and choirs.
in the south east.
Orchestral Manager: Kathleen Atkins,
Philharmonic Choir
The Philharmonic Choir is the larger of
the two choirs under the conductorship of
In 1974 the Composer’s Guild of Great
Britain named him ‘“Conductor of the
Year” for his services to British music. He
is a Fellow of the Royal College of Music
and has received Awards from the Classics
Club Patron of Music Fund, the Cabot
Foundation and the Arnold Bax Memorial
Medal for Conducting.
In spite of his crowded schedule,Vernon
Handley still manages to escape to his
Gloucestershire home for a period of every
year to work on enlarging his already
immense repertoire and to follow his keen
interest in ornithology.
Anthony Goldstone
Anthony Goldstone is one of the most
exciting British musicians to emerge in
recent years. He was born in Liverpool and
started to study the piano when he was
five. A scholarship took him to Manchester
Grammar School where it was not until his
final year that he decided to make music
his career. While still at school he had been
a junior exhibitioner at the Royal
Manchester College of Music, and later won
a scholarship to study there full-time. He
studied with Professor Derrick Wyndham
and graduated with distinction winning
the Dayas Gold Medal. He has since been
made an Honorary Fellow of the R.M.C.M.
His next step took him to London to
number of recitals, as well as chamber
music.
1974/5 saw the release of his first
commercial recordings on the Oryx label,
a series of five discs devoted to music by
Chopin, Schumann and Schubert.
Anthony Goldstone has appeared with
Vernon Handley and The Guildford
Philharmonic Orchestra on two previous
occasions in Guildford: in 1962
performing Beethoven’s Fourth Piano
Concerto and last year in a performance
of Brahms’s First Piano Concerto.
PROGRAMME
GOD SAVE THE QUEEN
arr. Bliss
Coronation Anthem, Zadok the Priest
Handel 1685—-1759
For the Coronation of King George Il in
Westminster Abbey on 11 October 1727
Handel composed no less than four
anthems. It was an occasion of exceptional
splendour and Handel’s music clothed it
with fitting pomp and ceremony. The
Chapel Royal choir was raised to 47 voices
study with Maria Curcio, (herself a pupil
of Schnabel) and this was followed by
international prizes in Munich and Vienna,
a Gulbenkian Fellowship and his first
and the orchestra of strings, oboes,
bassoons, trumpets, drums and organ was
London recitals under the auspices of the
responsible for the choice of the texts,
Kirckman Society.
Since then Anthony Goldstone has toured
extensively in Europe, and in North and
South America: recent invitations include
return visits to the States, Brazil, France,
Austria, Spain etc. He made his debut in
the London Proms in 1971 with the
Schumann Concerto, and was invited by
the BBC to be a soloist in the Last Night
of the Proms in 1976. He has appeared at
many major British Festivals, including
Edinburgh in 1973 and 1976, and
Aldeburgh in 1975. His flourishing career
in this country includes regular appearances
with most of the major orchestras,
frequent broadcasts and an increasing
of considerably larger dimensions than the
choir itself. Handel was personally
with the exception of the first anthem,
Let thy hand be strengthened, which was
chosen by the king. Of the other texts,
Zadok the Priest had been used for the
Coronation of Charles II with music by
Henry Lawes, and My heart is inditing was
set by Purcell for James II. Handel is said
to have completed all four anthems in as
many weeks and the music found such
favour with the new king that he not only
continued the pension settled on Handel by
his predecessor but made him an additional
grant of £200 a year for his services as a
music-master to the young princesses.
The text is based on a passage from the
First Book of Kings, Ch.1: v. 39—40.
1
Zadok the Priest and Nathan the Prophet
anointed Solomon King. And all the people
rejoiced, and said: God save the King!
Long live the King! May the King live for
ever!
:
Amen, Allelujah!
There is an extended introduction in which
the strings weave a panoply of arpeggios
and then the chorus in seven parts utters
the proclamation. The second section is a
five-part chorus of rejoicing (allegro 3/4).
And finally comes the triumphant shouts
of ‘Long live the King’, etc., followed by
an elaborate development of the ‘Amen,
Allelujah’ motives.
A. K. Holland.
f’iano Concerto No.3 in C minor, Op.37
Beethoven 1770—1827
soloist the piano dominates it. The quiet
opening of the second movement in E
major is such a daring contrast to the
vigorous C minor of the Allegro that one
is tempted to think of Haydn, whose
extraordinary key relationships like this
must have inspired Beethoven more than
once. It is a beautifully poised and
personal Largo, and the introduction of
seemingly simple scales towards the end of
the movement creates a very definite
contrast to the straightforward unfolding
of the tune at the beginning.
The Rondo is scintillating, and Beethoven
emphasises its onward rush by occasionally
stopping the orchestra altogether and
allowing the soloist to pause in capricious
scales, as if to catch breath before starting
the glorious chase all over again. There
are two main ideas in the movement: an
Allegro con brio
accented one in the minor which,
Largo
according to how it is played, can sound
very gay and light or rather petulant and
Rondo
The Third Piano Concerto was written
when Beethoven was thirty years old and
is considered the first of the masterpieces
of his prolific ‘second period’. Although it
bitter, and an undoubtedly light-hearted
descent in E flat major. A presto in C
major brings one of Beethoven’s most
popular works to an exhilarating end.
was mainly composed in 1800, it was not
performed until 1803. Beethoven wrote to
the publishers: ‘Musical policy necessitates
keeping the best concertos to one’s self for
INTERVAL
a while.” At the first performance, the
piano part (for it was the custom for a
soloist to play from an open score) was not
written down in full and an Austrian
nobleman, who was to turn the pages for
Beethoven, wrote that he saw ‘almost
nothing but empty leaves with here and
there a few hieroglyphics for clues’.
Whenever he reached the end of an
‘invisible’ passage, Beethoven gave his
friend a nod so that he could turn a page.
The first movement opens with an
orchestral tutti. Beethoven extends this
tutti so as to introduce a second main
theme (clarinet and violins) but when the
soloist enters, he establishes that it is the
first theme that is to be taken up and used.
Though the movement starts like that of a
symphony, after the appearance of the
Festival Te Deum
Holst 1874—1934
Holst’s Te Deum is a typically economical
work; indeed, Holst called it Short Festival
Te Deum. It was written in 1919 for
Morley College where Holst lectured and
taught. A modest orchestra, compared to
that of The Planets, is used and although
this work was intended more for an
amateur chorus and orchestra than had
been the larger work which had had its
first performance the year before, nevertheless the mastery which he displays in his
control of the chosen forces is best
illustrated by professional orchestra and
secure and experienced chorus. Even in
such a modest work this great original
composer was not content to produce a
Variation 5. (R.P.A.). R. P. Arnold was
the son of Matthew Arnold, and a quiet
“pot boiler” and shunning all cheap bids
contemplative scholar.
for popularity he actually ends the work
pianissimo. Those expecting a brilliant
shout to finish off the work will be
confounded. Those willing to listen to the
sweeping close harmonies in the sopranos
and altos and the subtle capturing of the
rhythm of the words will find the same
Variation 6. (Ysobel) Miss Ysobel Fitton
was charming and played the viola.
Variation 7. (Troyte). The great blocks of
sound which the music hammers out are a
fitting illustration of the character of
Arthur Troyte Griffith, a well known
satisfaction that accompanies the
Malvern architect.
concentrated attention to such details in
Variation 8. (W.N.). A graceful, charming
the composer’s more profound and
and quietly marked variation which Elgar
extended Hymn of Jesus.
was painstaking enough to mark quaver =
104, so that conductors would not play it
‘Enigma’ Variations
Elgar 1837—1934
too slowly. It is, if played at the correct
speed, a fine salute to the gentle Winifred
Norbury, and also a perfect foil to the next
It is as well not to bother about the tune
variation to which it is joined by a single
to which the ‘Enigma’, the theme, is said
note.
to be acounterpoint. It is much better to
Variation 9. This solemn movement is
listen to this set of variations simply as
music. The amazing thing about it is that
the dedication ‘To my friends pictured
within’ has not caused the composer to
take ridiculous pictorial liberties with his
theme. Instead, he pictures them with
brilliant variation writing. The theme itself
is built on two contrasting, though
interwoven, ideas. The first is in the minor,
and is a sequence pattern over a rising bass;
the second is in the major, and more
flowing and rhapsodic. The theme which
is adagio, though often played andante,
Elgar’s tribute to his great friend A. J.
Jaeger of Novello & Co. Jaeger is German
for hunter: hence the allusion to Nimrod.
Also quite clearly marked as to speed,
though often played much slower, thus
sentimentalising what is supposed to be a
noble section.
Variation 10. (Dorabella). This is headed
Intermezzo which is demanded by the form
of the work after the climax of Nimrod. It
is an intimate delicate portrait of Miss
Dora Penny.
leads into:
Variation 11. (G.R.S.). Dr. George Sinclair
Variation 1. (G.A.E.). These are the initials
owned a dog, and was an energetic
was Cathedral organist at Hereford. He
of Lady Elgar. The theme is treated with
performer and walker.
great tenderness.
Variation 12. (B.G.N.). Basil Nevinson was
Variation 2. (H.D.S.P.). A very quick
meditative and played the Cello.
three-in-a-bar beat as one. The theme
Variation 13. Romanza. This variation
appears in the bass. H. D. Steuart-Powell
contains the famous allusion to
must have been a quick fingered pianist.
Mendelssohn’s Overture ‘Calm Sea and
Variation 3. (R.B.T.). A mazurka like
variation in which the reedy voice of
R. B. Townshend is parodied.
Variation 4. (W.N.B.). How can W. Neath
Baker have been anything other than an
energetic and forthright man?
Prosperous Voyage’. It commemorates a
journey undertaken by Lady Mary
Treffusis.
Variation 14. (E.D.U.). Finale. The initials
refer to a nickname of Elgar’s. This finale
is cumulative, and does not rely quite so
much on the sequence patterns which were
one of Elgar’s mannerisms. Great climaxes
rise out of the development of the final
variation itself, then as Elgar paints his own
portrait, he finds it cannot be complete
without a reference back to Lady Elgar’s
variation, and finally with great strides the
theme rides triumphant and glorious on
the superbly scored accompaniment that
supports it.
The Enigma Variations was played for the
first time in 1899, and although modern
criticism will not admit it, its great success
all over the world proves that that day was
a great one in English musical history.
Oboes
Sara Barrington
Moyra Montagu
Clarinets
John Denman
Leslie Walklin
1st Violins
Associate Leaders:
John Ludlow
Hugh Bean
Patricia Cassidy
Hywell Davies
Vito Gambazza
Bridget Hirst
Robert Lewcock
Keith Lewis
Paul Manley
Peter Maslin
Susan Penfold
David Towse
Nina Whitehurst
Second Violins
Sheila Beckensall
Rosemary Roberts
Constance Ames
Timothy Callaghan
Cynthia Dunn
Ruth Dawson
John Forster
John Gralak
David Greed
Susan Kinnersley
Ronald Tendler
Tenor Trombones
Alfred Flaszynski
Bass Trombone
Robin Turner
Contra Bassoon
Nicholas Reader
Tuba
Horns
Timpani
Dennis Scard
VERNON HANDLEY
Colin Moore
Edgar Riches
Trevor Herbert
Bassoons
Nicholas Hunka
Anna Meadows
Peter Clack
GUILDFORD PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA
Director of Music/Conductor
Trumpets
Ted Hobart
Douglas Murlis
George Woodcock
Stephen Wick
Roger Blair
Percussion
Benedict Hoffnung
Peter Fry
Stephen Lees
Violas
Christopher Martin
Trevor Snoad
Margaret Hunt
Kathryn Burgess
Robert Duncan
Rosemary Sanderson
Robert Windquist
Cellos
Eldon Fox
Jack Holmes
Pauline Sadgrove
Tina Macrae
Paul Kegg
Corinne Frost
Gwen Cassidy
Basses
Rodney Stewart
Douglas Lees
Michael Fagg
Anthony Moore
Richard Brown
Flutes
Alan Baker
Celia Chambers
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